Twelve years ago, at 8:15 AM, on a sub-zero Valentine’s Day in Minnesota, a dedicated group of friends faced the temperature and time to celebrate with us our wedding vows at the historic Whitney Hotel in Minneapolis, on the banks of the then frothy with ice, mighty Mississippi River. Here, Martijn and I look over St. Anthony Falls from our hotel penthouse balcony after the ceremony. Memorable is the fact that most of our guests intended to go to work that day but opted to continue the celebration after a few glasses of breakfast champagne!
At 8:15 this Valentine’s Day, here we are commemorating a triumphant 12th wedding anniversary in bed with a cappuccino! Martijn’s valiant recovery from cancer, treatments and an extensive amputation and reconstructive surgery made this our ‘golden anniversary’ rather than waiting another 38 years for the actual one. So, we opted out of work for this day, just as our friends did so many years ago, creating a holiday in our own town.
We attended the exhibition of spectacular 80 million-year-old dinosaur fossils recently opened around the corner from our home at the Centre Ceramique in collaboration with the Maastricht Natural History Museum and China. These China Dinos are magnificent in detail and dimension. Enlivening the exhibit were some interactive activities like stepping into a gigantic dino food dish to measure your weight against dino’s minimum daily meal requirements. (I more than comprised one tasty tidbit!) In fact, another activity had me fiercely pedaling a bike to try to outrun one hungry bugger approaching on film behind me. Whoosh, this time I became his tasty tidbit in about three seconds. Scientists estimate those guys could hoof it!
From bones to bronze - we next visited one of Maastricht’s hidden treasures – its municipal museum, tucked away on the St. Pieterstraat. There we found a small but powerful exhibit of sculptures by Maastricht’s own Appie Drielsma. From an online description: “Two opposites are clearly recognizable in Drielsma’s oeuvre. An expressive and a constructive, that - as he says himself - are in line. He sometimes unites the two. "I can achieve the same proportions, rhythm, structure and movement in both languages of form." To strengthen the deeper meaning of his work, Drielsma uses signs, symbols and letters as expressive elements…In the portraits and masks he depicts the character of the model. In the monumental constructive work he uses geometrical forms. Because of the continuing change in lighting on the horizontal and vertical lines, the images appear to change shape continuously. The work is pure and serene.”
And that’s how we felt as we continued on stopping in our favorite local glass gallery for a hand-blown anniversary vase from a Czech glass cooperative, then heading for a drink prior to dining at Il Giardino, our new preferred Italian eatery. Given the events of the past year we were truly grateful to make this day in health and well being. We hope to spread our happiness to all corners of the globe reminding our circle of friends that you are judged not by how well you love, but how well you are loved.
Twelve years ago, at 8:15 AM, on a sub-zero Valentine’s Day in Minnesota, a dedicated group of friends faced the temperature and time to celebrate with us our wedding vows at the historic Whitney Hotel in Minneapolis, on the banks of the then frothy with ice, mighty Mississippi River. Here, Martijn and I look over St. Anthony Falls from our hotel penthouse balcony after the ceremony. Memorable is the fact that most of our guests intended to go to work that day but opted to continue the celebration after a few glasses of breakfast champagne! 
At 8:15 this Valentine’s Day, here we are commemorating a triumphant 12th wedding anniversary in bed with a cappuccino! Martijn’s valiant recovery from cancer, treatments and an extensive amputation and reconstructive surgery made this our ‘golden anniversary’ rather than waiting another 38 years for the actual one. So, we opted out of work for this day, just as our friends did so many years ago, creating a holiday in our own town.
We attended the exhibition of spectacular 80 million-year-old dinosaur fossils recently opened around the corner from our home at the Centre Ceramique in collaboration with the Maastricht Natural History Museum and China. These China Dinos are magnificent in detail and dimension. Enlivening the exhibit were some interactive activities like stepping into a gigantic dino food dish to measure your weight against dino’s minimum daily meal requirements. (I more than comprised one tasty tidbit!) In fact, another activity had me fiercely pedaling a bike to try to outrun one hungry bugger approaching on film behind me. Whoosh, this time I became his tasty tidbit in about three seconds. Scientists estimate those guys could hoof it!
From bones to bronze - we next visited one of Maastricht’s hidden treasures – its municipal museum, tucked away on the St. Pieterstraat. There we found a small but powerful exhibit of sculptures by Maastricht’s own Appie Drielsma. From an online description: “Two opposites are clearly recognizable in Drielsma’s oeuvre. An expressive and a constructive, that - as he says himself - are in line. He sometimes unites the two. "I can achieve the same proportions, rhythm, structure and movement in both languages of form." To strengthen the deeper meaning of his work, Drielsma uses signs, symbols and letters as expressive elements…In the portraits and masks he depicts the character of the model. In the monumental constructive work he uses geometrical forms. Because of the continuing change in lighting on the horizontal and vertical lines, the images appear to change shape continuously. The work is pure and serene.”
And that’s how we felt as we continued on stopping in our favorite local glass gallery for a hand-blown anniversary vase from a Czech glass cooperative, then heading for a drink prior to dining at Il Giardino, our new preferred Italian eatery. Given the events of the past year we were truly grateful to make this day in health and well being. We hope to spread our happiness to all corners of the globe reminding our circle of friends that you are judged not by how well you love, but how well you are loved.
1 comment:
great quote from the wizard of oz..
but yes you are both loved...
happy annivery
((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))
your cuz
Hannah
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